So I bought the game about a month or so ago and have completed the initial story, HOT, and most of season 3. Yet, what I don’t understand is if I purchased the game, why do I now have to purchase LWS2 as well? Shouldn’t that be part of what I’ve already paid for? Right now, much of the story doesn’t make all that much sense as I’ve had to go online and read up on what I missed.
I really enjoy the game but just don’t understand how a core part of the main story doesn’t come with what I’ve already paid for. I figured that by buying the game, I’d be ale to catch up with everything I’ve missed.
So… I’m just pretty frustrated at the moment and kind of feel a kitteneated.
Kara “Tiptoes” Sheridan (Ranger)
Tarnished Coast Roleplayers [TCRP] “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
It was free if you just logged into the game when the episode went live. When the next episode was released it then became that you have to pay. Normal MMO stuff.
Since you’ve had the game since launch (according to your previous posts), you might have seen/read the statements about logging in to acquire any/all Living World episodes at no cost.
As an alternative, you can acquire Living World Season Two at no (real cash) cost by exchanging Gold for Gems.
LS2 was never free unless you logged in during the initial launch period for each episode – exactly the same as LS3 which uses the same system.
Seasons are designed to be more like DLC’s bridging expacs, rather than outright free content, rewarding those who where there for the ride and also being able to be purchased using in game gold as well.
Now, it’s not a system I have favoured – I find it great for the time it was released, but confusing for newer players coming in and a bit of a strange gate which will exasperate as more seasons appear.
I’m not sure what the alternative is though, since it is a source of development income for the game and making it fully free may not be the right approach.
You can turn gold into gems and buy LWS2 with that method. When you are new, that may seem an unreasonable goal but it really isn’t all that hard to do. Just requires some intense farming and fractals.
Yannir for males. (guard,thief,war,ele)
Sonya for females. (necro,rev,ranger,mes,engi)
All classes lvl 80.
Their pricing for Living World Seasons are, if you log in while an episode is current it’s free. Otherwise you have to buy it. This encourages people to log in frequently and play the game to get the episodes at no cost. On the other hand you can always use gold to buy the gems needed.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Since you’ve had the game since launch (according to your previous posts), you might have seen/read the statements about logging in to acquire any/all Living World episodes at no cost.
Long story but yeah, I was around back since right after launch but didn’t stick around more than about a year. Saw another “shiny” MMO and figured I’d never come back to GW2. As such, I uninstalled the game, forgot my original email and ultimately had to buy a new account. Life lesson learned I suppose. But to answer you comment, I actually do not remember that statement anywhere.
You can turn gold into gems and buy LWS2 with that method. When you are new, that may seem an unreasonable goal but it really isn’t all that hard to do. Just requires some intense farming and fractals.
That’s a good point and it’s sort of pathetic that I didn’t think of that. I’ve traded gold for gems a few times to buy some cosmetic junk but never thought of just using it to get LWS2. Thanks!
Kara “Tiptoes” Sheridan (Ranger)
Tarnished Coast Roleplayers [TCRP] “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
I agree that it could be better communicated. I purchased the game key around the same time you did (HoT), and I didn’t even consider that there could be locked content. Not even the most expensive package has LW2 included, only in the second step of the purchasing process you cann add this season (for 16 Euros atm). But at that point, I didn’t even know how the game and the story works.
Then, ingame at some point I noticed that Living World 2 was completely locked and that only the last chapter of Living World was unlocked. I did buy gems to unlock all chapters, and traded some gold to get the amount of gems I needed instead of buying surplus gems.
I don’t find it expensive though, and had I known it beforehand, I would have purchased it with the game key. The way it is done caught me a little bit by surprise though.
I wouldn’t even say it was free then. It was just never free. it was a gift for active players at that time
I think what really bothers me the most is that the story for HoT is continued from the events of LWS2. Yet, if you didn’t read through the story or have the ability to actually play it, most of HoT wouldn’t make a great deal of sense. I mean, why would I care about Kaithe or that stupid egg?
I just figured it would unlock once I finished the main story quest line.
Oh well, at least it’s easy to trade gold for the gems.
Kara “Tiptoes” Sheridan (Ranger)
Tarnished Coast Roleplayers [TCRP] “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
because the devs dont give birth to money to fund their game and tb fair with the purchase of the expac you already get so much value. By payimg for the expac you get acess to lw s3 and the hot story as well as the fore game story lw1 and lw2 are content witch was added after lauch and its not part of the expansion therefor are paid dlc
I wouldn’t even say it was free then. It was just never free. it was a gift for active players at that time
I think what really bothers me the most is that the story for HoT is continued from the events of LWS2. Yet, if you didn’t read through the story or have the ability to actually play it, most of HoT wouldn’t make a great deal of sense. I mean, why would I care about Kaithe or that stupid egg?
I just figured it would unlock once I finished the main story quest line.
Oh well, at least it’s easy to trade gold for the gems.
I agree to some extend. It was just a really weird decision to include Core, HoT, but skip LS2. I mean, that makes little sense to me. If it were me, I think they should’ve included LS2 into the core game and made the HoT expansion a top up
I wonder if ANet might be better off by charging everyone for LS4 (whenever it comes out) and also offering it for a deep discount as each episode goes live (say 50 gems per episode) and offering 50 gems as a login reward during the same time.
The net result would be the same: the episodes would still cost 200 gems to new players and it wouldn’t cost veterans. However, it would probably feel different for everyone, since it would be clear that the unlock is a perk for frequent flyers.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
ls4 will prob be tied to expac 2 there for content that expac 2 bring if they where to charge it it would be that its nt content of the expac therefor the expac would require a great deal of content to balance out the lack of content that se4 would bring.
Since Season 2 is already outdated in a way it should be made free so that people that buy HoT can make sense when it comes to story. I am waiting for HoT to arrive next week but honestly i don’t know if i should even start playing it or just grind for months to unlock Season 2 first…
Its never a good idea to have high entry point for new players. I like how EQ2 gives u all previous expansions when buying latest one making it easy for new players to start playing instead of calculating how much they need to spend and probably giving up completely at the end.
At the very least Season 2 should be free for people who bought Guild Wars 2 before base game went f2p.
Since Season 2 is already outdated in a way it should be made free so that people that buy HoT can make sense when it comes to story. I am waiting for HoT to arrive next week but honestly i don’t know if i should even start playing it or just grind for months to unlock Season 2 first…
Its never a good idea to have high entry point for new players. I like how EQ2 gives u all previous expansions when buying latest one making it easy for new players to start playing instead of calculating how much they need to spend and probably giving up completely at the end.
At the very least Season 2 should be free for people who bought Guild Wars 2 before base game went f2p.
Except that Everquest 2 is a free to play game with optional subscription. Bascially operating on a completely different monetisation model. Same as Star Wars: TOR, I’m not sure I’d like some of those cash shop items in this game though.
If arenanet can find a way to make LW Season 2 free without a hit to their revenue I’m sure they’d be on it. Until then I’d rather it stay the way it is instead of inviting other monetisation methods into the game.
At the very least Season 2 should be free for people who bought Guild Wars 2 before base game went f2p.
I think it might be a good idea for them to do that when LWS3 is fully out.
I had done only the last epi of LWS2 until I did HoT, and gotta say I really hated Braham based on just HoT story but as soon as I started doing LWS2 after buying it, I kinda grew to like him as he’s genuinely funny sometimes. Ofc, now I hate him again after the Bitterfrost episode. He goes from a funny guy to an emo to an even worse emo the further we go.
Yannir for males. (guard,thief,war,ele)
Sonya for females. (necro,rev,ranger,mes,engi)
All classes lvl 80.
In my opinion it is bad communicated and new players are left unhappy. Imho this should be just free for all and all time. I expect that from an MMO. The damage is bigger than the money you make. You can see that on the forums. Every now and then someone asks here what’s going on.
In my opinion it is bad communicated and new players are left unhappy. Imho this should be just free for all and all time. I expect that from an MMO. The damage is bigger than the money you make. You can see that on the forums. Every now and then someone asks here what’s going on.
You already getting to play free without a sub, so you may feel entitled to having everything for a free but content costs money to develop, servers cost money to maintain etc etc. As for living story, this is an old old old story, was discussed to death years ago. If you want it free swap gold for gems and get it for free, or get it for free by simply being onlnie when it is offered for free.
Think of it this way, a shop has a sale on for 2 days, you arrive in the shop 3 months later and ask for sale prices, not gonna happen.
“Trying to please everyone would not only be challenging
but would also result in a product that might not satisfy anyone”- Roman Pichler, Strategize
In my opinion it is bad communicated and new players are left unhappy. Imho this should be just free for all and all time. I expect that from an MMO. The damage is bigger than the money you make. You can see that on the forums. Every now and then someone asks here what’s going on.
You already getting to play free without a sub, so you may feel entitled to having everything for a free but content costs money to develop, servers cost money to maintain etc etc. As for living story, this is an old old old story, was discussed to death years ago. If you want it free swap gold for gems and get it for free, or get it for free by simply being onlnie when it is offered for free.
Think of it this way, a shop has a sale on for 2 days, you arrive in the shop 3 months later and ask for sale prices, not gonna happen.
No, the ‘sup’ concept is an ancient stigmatisation of MMOs and is not needed anyways. Subs were possible be cause people paid for it. And as of now only a handful have subs and a significant playerbase. Besides, GW2 keeps costs even lower with a non continuous world. The zones are split and don’t work as many MMOs with a true open world.
No, in my opinion it is bad marketing to ask new players for money to follow the main story. What were they thinking? You pay a full price game and then they ask for money? No, sorry. It’s a no go. Besides, I don’t think they make a lot of money off these story parts anyways. The damage is bigger than what they gain (monetarey income vs. long time customer contentedness).
no the sub is a reality for MOST AAA rpg, it is not a concept it is the name of a payment type, i.e a compulsory monthly payment and it was GW that proved no sub with a non pay-to-win shop can work for AAA games. people may continue to ignore that fact that living story is in fact free but that is factually correct. the arguement above equates to ‘I think it should be free because i think so’
I will help you : play for free → earn gold → swap gold for gems, get episodes for free.
“Trying to please everyone would not only be challenging
but would also result in a product that might not satisfy anyone”- Roman Pichler, Strategize
No, in my opinion it is bad marketing to ask new players for money to follow the main story.
It’s really no different than buying each individual expansion in other MMOs. Normally the seasons would have simply been sold as DLC from the start. The problem here however is that you’re not aware that you’re missing parts of the main story upfront. If something is going to be optional, the main story shouldn’t continue on top of it. Expansions and seasons should have been their own thing.
I love it when this argument over communication pops up over things like this. It was communicated, and in several different places as to exactly how the living world system was set up. Just because YOU didn’t see that communication, either on the forums, in game, or on the official website, doesn’t mean there was no communication. The people moaning about communication are ridiculous and wouldn’t be happy unless an ANET representative came to their house, knocked on their door, and personally told each and every one of them that something new was happening. Even then they’d probably complain that the person didn’t come at an hour convenient for them. Its unreal how catered to people feel like they have to be.
You free admit to leaving the game for a period of time and then coming back. Things happened while you were gone. Why exactly do you feel entitled to everything that happened while you were gone because you weren’t playing and weren’t paying attention to it at that time? I don’t play BDO at all and I don’t pay attention to it, but if I decide to play tomorrow, I can’t go “Why did all this stuff happen when I wasn’t playing this game at all and I don’t know about it!”
Frankly living story season 3 shouldn’t be a separate charge as you need the expansion to play it. Since it was also advertised as being part of the expansion and needing that to play it, it should be provided to those accounts for free regardless of when they picked up the expansion. Not everyone got HoT on day one, and I’m sure there will be players who will get it 2 years after release and when the living story is done, why would they have to pay for that content when the expansion already paid for it?
I can understand if living story season 2 was still left as charged content, that was released as free content initially to everyone before the expansion and years after game release. If season 3 wasn’t sold as part of the expansion but released for free to everyone like season 2 I can see a need to charge for that as well. They will basically be double dipping charging for season 3. If season 4 comes out not attached to anything then feel free to offer it like season 2, or charge for it right off the bat if they want.
Also gems sales are the same as subs, they are just collected differently, subs take payments from everyone playing, gems sales takes it from people willing to dump much more into a game than a regular sub which tends to cover multiple players. In the end they both serve the same purpose, let’s not pretend they’re completely different.
Another derailing post. ^^ North Keep: One of the village residents will now flee if their home is destroyed.
“Game over man, Game Over!” – RIP Bill
Frankly living story season 3 shouldn’t be a separate charge as you need the expansion to play it. Since it was also advertised as being part of the expansion and needing that to play it, it should be provided to those accounts for free regardless of when they picked up the expansion. Not everyone got HoT on day one, and I’m sure there will be players who will get it 2 years after release and when the living story is done, why would they have to pay for that content when the expansion already paid for it?
I can understand if living story season 2 was still left as charged content, that was released as free content initially to everyone before the expansion and years after game release. If season 3 wasn’t sold as part of the expansion but released for free to everyone like season 2 I can see a need to charge for that as well. They will basically be double dipping charging for season 3. If season 4 comes out not attached to anything then feel free to offer it like season 2, or charge for it right off the bat if they want.
Also gems sales are the same as subs, they are just collected differently, subs take payments from everyone playing, gems sales takes it from people willing to dump much more into a game than a regular sub which tends to cover multiple players. In the end they both serve the same purpose, let’s not pretend they’re completely different.
Well you do get it even as a free to play account if you login during the time the episodes release just cant play them untill buying hot.
So play the game get it for free or come in later and hope they sell it as a bundle that you pick up with gems.
Well you do get it even as a free to play account if you login during the time the episodes release just cant play them untill buying hot.
So play the game get it for free or come in later and hope they sell it as a bundle that you pick up with gems.
And what about the players who haven’t discovered gw2, don’t have the game now during living story season, buy the game down the line and have to buy the season, they deserve to get screwed out of it?
If you’re required to buy HoT in order to play living story season 3, then they should get it for free no matter what, doesn’t that seem fair?
Another derailing post. ^^ North Keep: One of the village residents will now flee if their home is destroyed.
“Game over man, Game Over!” – RIP Bill
Well you do get it even as a free to play account if you login during the time the episodes release just cant play them untill buying hot.
So play the game get it for free or come in later and hope they sell it as a bundle that you pick up with gems.
And what about the players who haven’t discovered gw2, don’t have the game now during living story season, buy the game down the line and have to buy the season, they deserve to get screwed out of it?
If you’re required to buy HoT in order to play living story season 3, then they should get it for free no matter what, doesn’t that seem fair?
No since their model have been be here get it for free or pay gems later.
They could have kept it like season 1 and have it vanish after the time is up but the player base dident want that, hence now its permanent and cost gems to unlock later.
They could have been even worse and required hot to even unlock it.
It doesn’t seem any different to me than Season 2 (and Season 1, at the time) requiring Core Guild Wars 2. Each permanent season is dependent on a release. Season 2 with Core game; Season 3 (or more) with the first expansion, Heart of Thorns.
Except, of course, one can bank Season 3, unlike Season 2.
I instead see it as it should be included for free in the next expansion.
As they’ve said that each expansion will give the previous ones so you “only ever have to purchase the newest one”, that purchase coming with a growing number of holes in the story flow seems counter to their stated goal.
I instead see it as it should be included for free in the next expansion.
As they’ve said that each expansion will give the previous ones so you “only ever have to purchase the newest one”, that purchase coming with a growing number of holes in the story flow seems counter to their stated goal.
I think this is a fair shout.
“Trying to please everyone would not only be challenging
but would also result in a product that might not satisfy anyone”- Roman Pichler, Strategize
The Living Story is basically GW2’s DLC packs. Sometimes I wish they’d actually call it DLC to make this clearer.
They’re free if you log in during the initial release period as a courtesy to players, I think originally to ease the transition from the old system where updates were completely free but could only be played during a 2-4 week period. But other than that it works like any other DLC.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
I think in honesty Season 2 should go free as someone who had it when it came out for free, considering that come expansion 2 it will be irelevent content, promoting the game by making S2 entirley free wouldnt hurt the game at all.
I think in honesty Season 2 should go free as someone who had it when it came out for free, considering that come expansion 2 it will be irelevent content, promoting the game by making S2 entirley free wouldnt hurt the game at all.
A good idea then s3 will be free when the third expac hits and so on but they should say so soon so people dont get kittened after spending gems now to unlock it.
I do believe though that Anet needs to find a way to tie those mastery points to other things or they are effectively saying that new players that don’y buy these things will never get to progress as much as players that have come before them or have bought the content. It basically takes a dump on the mastery system since it means those people will inevitably hit a wall that will feel insurmountable and possibly make them leave the game.
[OTR] – Greck Howlbane – Guardian
Soraya Mayhew – Thief
Melissa Koris – Engie – SF for Life!
Perhaps by sending e-mails each time there was a new episode released, informing you that it would be free to unlock until the next one came out?
That wouldn’t have helped me because I only bought the game 2 months ago. They could add a package that includes Season 2. There are 3 packages you can purchase, none of them mentions it. If there was one package that has a bullet point “Personal Story Season 2 included”, that would have told me that there is something important that is not included in the cheaper packages and needs to be purchased.
I’m not against having payed content at all, I happily pay for the fun I have with this hobby. There are much more expensive ones around
I just say it could be better communicated that Season 2 needs to be purchased extra.
Maybe they could offer some kind of bundle where you can get the base game + all currently available expansions + all the living story so far for 1 price. (Keep the option to buy them separately of course, but offer this as another option.)
And then keep updating it as new stuff comes out. Maybe not right away, they could wait until Season 3 is finished to include it for example.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Guys, you defending this ludicrous method is ridiculous! It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again. You progress the freaking main story! And besides: the original content of HoT was so tiny with no dungeons and only 3 real maps to explore and then they dare to ask for money progress in the main story? What the hell? Guys really, I don’t get it, are you really so blind by fanboyism that you really defend this business model? I am completely speechless…
Guys, you defending this ludicrous method is ridiculous! It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again. You progress the freaking main story! And besides: the original content of HoT was so tiny with no dungeons and only 3 real maps to explore and then they dare to ask for money progress in the main story? What the hell? Guys really, I don’t get it, are you really so blind by fanboyism that you really defend this business model? I am completely speechless…
They aren’t asking for money, they are asking for gems. Gems can be acquired by gold.
Yannir for males. (guard,thief,war,ele)
Sonya for females. (necro,rev,ranger,mes,engi)
All classes lvl 80.
Guys, you defending this ludicrous method is ridiculous! It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again. You progress the freaking main story! And besides: the original content of HoT was so tiny with no dungeons and only 3 real maps to explore and then they dare to ask for money progress in the main story? What the hell? Guys really, I don’t get it, are you really so blind by fanboyism that you really defend this business model? I am completely speechless…
What’s the alternative?
Anet are a business and GW2 releases are their products. They cannot give away all their products for free because then they’d have no money to pay their staff and everyone would have to quit to find paying jobs…leaving us with nothing. (Or, if we’re lucky, with a skeleton crew of extremely dedicated people whose partners can support them/are independently wealthy/are willing to work two jobs for minimal benefits etc. keeping the game running.)
If you know of a game that does give away most of their new content for free please do let us know. But by free I mean free not “Oh well if you’re a paid subscriber then you get it free”.
All the other games I know of charge everyone, one way or another, for new content. Whether that’s charging a subscription to even log in but then making the updates free, or selling them as DLC or expansions or simply releasing a new game every few years.
So by comparison it seems like we’ve got a pretty good deal here because we can get the updates free if we log in during the release window, and now that’s a couple of months for each episode I think most current players could probably manage it. If not you can get spend your time instead of money to get it by converting gold to gems. Or you can pay real money, and with each episode costing 200 gems or about $2.50 / £2.12 it’s not even a lot of money. My other MMO charges about £8 for an equivalent sized DLC.
As I said I’m happy to hear about better options, but I don’t think simply saying it should be free makes sense.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Guys, you defending this ludicrous method is ridiculous! It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again. You progress the freaking main story! And besides: the original content of HoT was so tiny with no dungeons and only 3 real maps to explore and then they dare to ask for money progress in the main story? What the hell? Guys really, I don’t get it, are you really so blind by fanboyism that you really defend this business model? I am completely speechless…
Yes, guys, can’t you see having an opinion is ludicrous? can’t you see how mad it is to deviate with this guys opinion, HOW DARE YOU!
It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again.
1st. you seem under the false notion that LS was once free. it was not. Never was, never will be. It was a GIFT for active players. You paid for it by being active during release windows. Just because you missed the treat doesn’t mean you were entitled to it.
2nd. Luckily, we don’t. You say we pay for it again? who, who paid twice for LS content? name ONE person, just one!
They aren’t asking for money, they are asking for gems. Gems can be acquired by gold.
This 100%.
It isn’t that hard to get enough in game gold to buy 200 gems – and seems like a reasonable request (and for those wanting it faster, there is the minimal cash option – I think 200 gems usually runs about $3 US).
Guys, you defending this ludicrous method is ridiculous! It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again. You progress the freaking main story! And besides: the original content of HoT was so tiny with no dungeons and only 3 real maps to explore and then they dare to ask for money progress in the main story? What the hell? Guys really, I don’t get it, are you really so blind by fanboyism that you really defend this business model? I am completely speechless…
Yes, guys, can’t you see having an opinion is ludicrous? can’t you see how mad it is to deviate with this guys opinion, HOW DARE YOU!
It’s unbearable to ask for money when it was originally for free. New players don’t and won’t have any understanding why they have to pay again.
1st. you seem under the false notion that LS was once free. it was not. Never was, never will be. It was a GIFT for active players. You paid for it by being active during release windows. Just because you missed the treat doesn’t mean you were entitled to it.
2nd. Luckily, we don’t. You say we pay for it again? who, who paid twice for LS content? name ONE person, just one!
Lol, great thing mimicking me. I sometimes get a bit offhand. That’s what I love in this forum. But now in all Ernest Hemingway: Your argument that the Living World is a gift from Anet is far-fetched. They had to keep the crowd playing, it was in their interest to keep players playing the game. Also it was experimental.
Oh and btw: I haven’t missed a single LS2 or LS3 release, I got it for free. I also have a 2nd account and I payed a few hundreds of real money for gems. It’s not that I don’t like to pay for stuff I want. But I think it is a bad idea to ask for money – especially if you compare the price of HoT with its tiny content. Imagine a new player who has to pay a lot of money to just keep playing the story.
The money comes from the gem store, and this was the initial idea. I think the money they make with the LS story is far far fewer and only damages the company. But that’s my opinion of course.
He goes from a funny guy to an emo to an even worse emo the further we go.